1. I would enshrine the spirit of the past

2. For future restoration.

3. Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805), XI

In the year following the E major Piano Sonata, Mendelssohn composed two further cyclic works, the String Quintet No. 1, Op. 18, and the Piano Sonata Op. 106, both of which were to be suppressed in some form by the composer. The A major Quintet, as known in its final, published version of 1832, is not obviously a cyclic work. The original 1826 version of the quintet, however, had a third-movement minuet and contrapuntal trio instead of the present andante second movement, which was written in 1832 following the death of Mendelssohn's friend and violin teacher Eduard Rietz (the dedicatee of the Octet). As Friedhelm Krummacher has shown, the finale of the quintet incorporates an allusion to the music of the discarded Canone doppio trio within its development section (the new fugal theme of b. 177, Ex. 4.1), the thematic resemblance strengthened by the similar rising accompanimental figure in the cello.